Confrontational
by brenslow
Summary: It's the Grand Magic Games, Tenrou is finally behind them and Lucy is ready to help the world remember just who Fairy Tail really is and why they're the best. During celebrations after the first day ends, with the help of some alcohol she finally has the courage to face the one team in her Guild that doesn't seem to fully participate, and ends up finding relationships she never exp


The celebrations were absolutely insane –– Lucy ducked as another chair wizzed over her head, the air pulling strands of her hair in all directions. Frowning as she continued to navigate across the bar, zig-zagging through tables, more flying chairs, and of course dishes before she found herself flattened to the ground by an overly rambunctious Natsu having been pretty much whipped across the room by one of Gray's punches and, of course, he crashed into her.

"NATSU!" She screeched, "get off of me!"

"Sorry Lu! That was Gray's fault, want me to kick the shit out of him for ya?!" The dragon slayer jumped up, fists engulfed in flames as he turned back to the ice mage "YA HEAR THAT ICE NUTS!? YOU'RE FINISHED!" He roared, leaping into the air once again to clash with his … frenemy.

Lucy rolled her eyes, letting her head fall back to the wooden floor for a moment as she sighed in exasperation before pushing herself up; any longer and she risked being stepped on by one of the other fights breaking out nearby. But Lucy didn't really care, something about man and she figured Elfman was about to throw down with someone from one of the other guilds – definitely wanted to be further away more than anything. Scrambling to her feet, she – more wary of flying ice and flames – resumed her mission of getting the hell out.

Once she pushed open the doors, she took in a deep sigh of relief; the streets of Crocus were still plenty alive with the many tourists, but it still wasn't as loud as it was in that damn bar. The energy was more calm, joyful as people in bundles of twos, threes and some families wandered about the streets from vendor to vendor, each selling some type of food or souvenirs relating to the Grand Magic Games or Crocus itself. The sun was starting to set to the west, the sky tinged with hues of pink and purple amongst the fading yellowy orange of the days light, before slowly fading to light – and then darker blue in the east; stars scattering the sky where it was darkest, and Lucy couldn't help but feel the tension release from her shoulders and the frown lessened to more of a soft smile.

The stars always made her feel better, and she subconsciously let her hand fall to the keychain at her side, brushing softly against the never cold keys that hung there. That was one of the most amazing things to Lucy – metal had always been cold and lifeless, but her keys were not, it was as though the keys were as alive as the spirits themselves, and it gave her so much comfort.

Blinking, she felt herself jolt into a more straightened position, remembering what it was she really wanted to do. Not even five minutes ago she had been inside asking Laxus where his team had run off to (a semi-nerving experience in itself seeing as she had never really spoken to Laxus before, not thoroughly at least). Something about needing more space and staying in a different hotel on the other edge of town. Typical, she had thought to herself. As much as the rest of the guild tried to make them feel welcome, Lucy had always noticed they still seemed to hover on the edge a bit. She'd had a few beers that night – okay more than a few – and had worked herself up over the matter and decided she would tell them straight up to get over it, or at least try a bit harder.

She'd definitely noticed the times when all the guild girls would gather in the baths at the hall to gossip, and Evergreen would always huff like she didn't care – but Lucy could see the way she'd hold her breath sometimes and bite her lip, fighting the urge to talk more or try to get along, something always stopped her and she'd stay back. And Freed, he was a little better than Bickslow and Evergreen combined, since he'd hover close to Laxus' elbow sometimes before having the courage to branch off on his own after Bickslow and Evergreen had left – but Freed was never too far behind after having a short conversation with Levy or sometimes Mira at the bar.

Bickslow, on the other hand, was the easiest for Lucy to read – despite the visor masking half his face. He probably didn't realize it, but he wore his heart on his sleeve and it was obvious the sometimes perverted prankster was wearing a mask over how he truly felt. Humour was his defence, and he always found a way to turn the conversation to a joke, or one of Mira's party days into a horror-show of pranks on half the guild. It was so over the top to her, and she could tell it was fake. Especially since, as soon as the joke, or the prank was over, he left. He never stuck around to converse, to have a drink at the bar – except once on his birthday, only because Mira had made him – and Laxus always picked the mission for everyone.

So there she marched across Crocus, cheeks still flushed from the alcohol, and it was so peaceful, she nearly once again forgot what she was doing. Turning the corner semi-absentmindedly, a bright, horizontal, hotel sign drew her attention and pulled her from her rather drunk thoughts about whether caterpillars know they're going to be butterflies – or if they just start cocooning themselves one day like "I have no idea what I'm doing"…

"Oh god," she murmured, reading the sign – Hotel Magnificent. But damn did that sign not look magnificent. If anything, the place looked a bit run down. "You have to be kidding," so much for the peaceful walk. Lucy felt like she was about to walk into a brothel, although the street maintained a well kept look much like the rest of Crocus, the paint on the front door to this place was starting to chip, and the "F" in Magnificent was burnt out. There was no way Laxus would send her to a brothel… right? Either way, she figured she would find out in a moment.

Pushing through the chipped door, she found herself in a rather pleasant front room, a small front desk about 6 feet ahead of her, the hallway was wide and there were cushioned benches on the left side to take a seat if needed. A small woman at the desk lifted her head then, grey hair piled in a bun on top and half-moon glasses sitting partway down her nose, with chains dangling. Seeing such a warm smile from the older woman made Lucy feel a lot more comfortable about entering the building, and she strode up to the desk.

"Well hello deary, how may I help you?" Her voice was soft and sweet, wholly inviting and Lucy felt she could accidentally sit and talk too long with her.

"I'm looking for the Raijinshuu, I was directed here by Laxus?" Lucy only hoped the woman would know right away who she was referring to, not many people didn't know Laxus and the Raijinshuu.

The smile on the woman's face stretched even wider at the mention of the team. That's a good sign, Lucy thought to herself as the woman nodded as she stepped down from a stool — all but disappearing from sight, and would have if Lucy wasn't already standing at the desk. After a moment the woman came back and said, "They're staying in room 5, top floor. Usually I just walk in on them but you may want to knock since I'm sure they aren't expecting anyone,"

"Thank you," Lucy nodded to the woman, "And no, they really aren't expecting me!" she couldn't help but giggle at the shocked expressions she could imagine if she simply kicked the door in like any other member of Fairy Tail might.

Turning to the right, Lucy followed a rather narrow staircase up two flights of stairs before coming to a hallway with two doors, rooms 4 and 5. She could hear Evergreen's shrill screech sound from under door 5, and she hesitated knocking on the door — but just as she gathered the courage it flew open to reveal the tall - and in the moment Lucy wanted to refer to his outfit as a giant blanket - lanky, Seith Mage.

He froze for a moment, not expecting Lucy of all people to waiting outside their door, then let his tongue roll to the side, a massive grin spreading across his face, "Cosplayer!" his arms swung open and he leaned forward, pulling the tiny blonde up into a massive hug. Yes he had definitely been drinking, in fact Lucy could smell it on him before he'd even picked her up.

"What the fuck - Bicks put her down!" There was Evergreen, standing just behind him now with her hands on her hips, and a pointed stare at him. She flicked her gaze up a bit to Lucy, shock still processing on the girls face as Bickslow's grip on her didn't budge.

"Hello, Evergreen..." and then suddenly she was facing the hallway, Bickslow having turned around and now heading into the room. "Hey! Bickslow put me down!" Lucy squirmed in the Seith mage's grasp, her feet dangling a little under a foot off the ground and arms pinned in the still hugging embrace of Bickslow.

It definitely wasn't the welcoming she'd expected, but not the worst considering despite the whole ordeal Lucy noted she'd been able to maintain breathing, unlike when some metal-wearing mages hugged her. And then, as suddenly as she had been picked up, Bickslow was letting her go and she felt herself tilting backwards — her own tipsy-ness being apparent as she took one, two - and then she fell. Except she didn't land on anything hard, rather she found herself falling back into the softest freakin' pillow, or chair, or ... giant bag of fluff maybe?

A giggle escaped her mouth as she felt herself sink deep into the comfortable seat, finding somewhere in there a small amount of support in what felt like a curved chunk of foam. There was so much fluff surrounding her she found it nearly impossible to sit upright enough to even see the Seith mage and the fairy mage.

After a moment, she settled and found herself nearly folded with her arms and legs sticking out and nearly up, more than relaxed beside her in a comfortable fashion.

"Umm, maybe this isn't the best seat for me?" She felt a hand grab her hand - it wasn't Bickslow's this time - and found Evergreen pulling her up and out of the trap of a fluff ball. "Thank you, Evergreen,"

"You're welcome Lucy," she adjusted the light green house robe she was wearing, brushing off a few of the feathers that had undoubtedly exploded from the seams of the feather-filled-sheet Bickslow called a "chair". It was a Frankenstein monstrosity of the hotel rooms bedsheets really, sewn together and then filled with an ungodly amount of feathers (from god knows where) before Bickslow glued the edges to a chunk of foam small enough to miss if you weren't lucky - as Lucy had been.

"What on Earthland is that?!" Lucy asked, looking back at the giant sphere of feathers that Bickslow had let her fall into.

Evergreen just shrugged her shoulders, turning towards the couch to take a seat where she had a glass of white wine on the table, nearly finished, but being refilled before she took a sip. "Ask Bickslow,"

She didn't need to before the Seith mage answered, "I call it — fluffageddon!" He cackled before jumping up and landing on the sheet and sinking in the same manner Lucy had, until eventually from his elbows and knees up was all that could be seen from the mass.

"Just leave him," Evergreen waved her hand in dismissal, before getting up again and heading to the rooms kitchenette section - which was rather large in size, in fact the whole room was and Lucy had just started to take it in.

"Oh wow, this place looks so small from outside, but it's so nice - and this room is huge,"

"Yeah, it's nice. We found it a few years back and have come here every few months in between missions, and just to get away sometimes. Well, Laxus found it and thought it would work. We tend to pay the owner extra," she muttered the last bit with some disdain, eyeballing the Seith mage whose arms and legs were still poking from the sphere.

Lucy couldn't help but giggle, and stepped further into the room as Evergreen motioned for her to do so, a second wine glass now in hand just for the blonde.

"Sounds better than losing 75% of the reward to damages, honestly,"

"So Lucy, what brings you here – and how did you find us?" Tilting her head in curiosity.

"I asked Laxus where you guys had went, I wanted to talk to you all," she nodded in thanks to Evergreen motioning if she did indeed want some wine, before handing the glass to Lucy. "Thank you,"

"You wanted to talk to us, huh?" Bickslow had finally pulled himself up and moved to sit himself beside Lucy on the couch.

She was now sandwiched between two of the Raijinshuu, and she could feel a bead of sweat form on the back of her neck – thanking the heavens right then she wasn't always an obvious nervous. "Well, yes, I do. I've kind of always wanted to get to know you all better, even Freed and Laxus," she spoke honestly, "And you guys never hang around the guild hall long enough for anyone to really get to know you,"

Her straight forward honesty had Evergreen nearly swallow her sip of wine wrong, coughing just slightly to clear her throat. "I – I don't really have anything to say about that," standing up, she set her wine glass down and stormed off down what appeared to be a hallway, before a door closed.

Mentally, Lucy noted the room seemed to get bigger and bigger the longer she was there, as she hadn't noticed the hallway before, or maybe it was just the alcohol not letting her senses take in her full surroundings – but more importantly, she just seemed to offend Evergreen.

"Don't worry about her, she'll get over it in a few minutes and come back. She's just drunk, has been all night. It's her third bottle of wine," Bickslow was still there, and for the first time since the door opened, Lucy noticed that his outfit that night really was a blanket. He must have noticed her looking him over, because his next comment set fire to her cheeks and had her shuffling so fast to the other end of the couch. "If you're wondering, I am completely naked under this blanket and you are more than welcome to take a look," his hands motioned to unwrap the blanket from some area at his waist where it appeared to be tucked in, before he couldn't help but throw his head back and cackle at the blonde's reaction. "I'm kidding, you can't actually look,"

"Not that I would want to anyways," she retorted, narrowing her eyes at the man in front of her. It wasn't often he didn't have his eyes covered, tonight was one of those nights where he didn't bother to wear the metal visor and for the first time, Lucy noticed how unique his eye shape was – and the colour. It was known the Seith mage has red eyes, like Gajeel, but unlike Gajeel, Bickslow's eyes seemed to be ringed with darker bands of red, and she'd never seen or heard of anything like it.

"Well, the way you're lookin' at me right now might suggest otherwise," Bickslow couldn't help but want to tease a bit, that's just how he was when it came to being around people he didn't fully know. _Okay_, he knew a fair amount about Lucy Heartfilia, who in the guild _didn't_ know anything about her? Everyone knew something about her, and _everyone_ knew when her birthday was. Bickslow, he knew a few things from what he had seen in the guild, and rumours floating around. The fact Natsu always has a bruise on his abdomen, somewhere, is because Lucy kicks him out of her bed a few times a week when he invites himself in and _she hated_ when he did that. He also knew that she had a similar emotional connection to her spirits in the way he had with _his_ spirits – dolls, totems, babies, whatever – technically they were spirits in a way, souls of the once living. Close enough? Bickslow also knew she enjoyed fiction and history books more than non-fiction or other genres, and that her favourite food from the guild bar was _actually_ French toast, despite the 70 strawberry milkshakes she could put back in a week.

"And _why_ would you think that? You happen to have very interesting eyes, does no-one ever say? Because that's _all_ that's interesting," a bit more straight forward than Lucy had intended, and she held her ground with a rather pleased smile at this point as she watched Bickslow's single eyebrow raise in question.

"Usually it's my tongue that's commented on," and with that said he had learned forward, leaning on his knees with hands clasped, tongue out and flicking the tip just a couple times in an attempt to rile her up maybe? Maybe.

Lucy felt like she was going to explode then, her smirk wavering as she fought to hide the heat over-taking her neck, ears and slowly her cheeks once again. Not that she would admit it in her lifetime, but right now her mind was rain pooling in dirty, leafy gutters as she blatantly watched his tongue for a moment. Letting go of the air in her lungs she didn't know she was holding, she pushed the embarrassment – that she would never admit was simply because he definitely won that round – down, and it took everything in her to keep cool, not adjust her legs or let her eyes drop below his _nose _again. _Heavens, there's no way it's legal for someone to be that hot? No! Bad Lucy. Don't think like that right now. You're drunk and only staring at him for the first time. It should be no surprise he's good looking, you've seen him at the beach before – **stop**_.

"Cat got your tongue, huh Cosplayer?" He laughed a bit as he leaned back, pulling his own tongue into his mouth and grinning more like a goof than a smug man who'd just teased the _hell _out of the guild's Celestial mage. Deciding he wanted to hear what she had to say, because from what he knew she wouldn't have shown up _just_ to get to know him, or Ever. She could be as sly as Mira with plans, and as scary as Erza if you really wanted to push it. "What's up?"

Thankful that Bickslow seemed to be easing up on the flirtatious teasing, Lucy allowed herself to resettle, tucking both legs underneath her as she took a sip of wine from the glass Evergreen had poured her –– before storming off. "Well, it's true that I want to get to know you guys better. You're still a rather mysterious group, and I think that needs to end,"

"Why?" It was a very simple, very straightforward question.

"Why…?" Lucy thought about it for a moment, "Because most of our biggest interactions have been facing each other, rather than ever working together. I don't like that because the whole guild is a team, and I want you guys to know I trust you, and would be there for you, and I want to trust you even more because you guys are the Raijinshuu, one of the strongest teams in the family,"

"I turned you to stone," Evergreen's voice had Lucy turning to the doorway that led to the hallway. "Then lost, and I couldn't help Elfman properly during our fight with that damned fruitcake, Rustyrose… I don't think we're very trustworthy people,"

Lucy flinched a little at how hard Evergreens words were towards her own team, and herself. "I heard Rustyrose was a bit overpowered, Elfman said he could bring anything from his imagination to existence, which is more than unfair in my opinion – that whole dark guild had magic that was forbidden if anything, it's not _your_ fault alone. You both did your best, and the way Elfman describes it, he wouldn't have even survived very long if it wasn't for you,"

Rather than respond, Evergreen simply huffed and moved to sit on one of the other lounge chairs in the open room, crossing her legs and staring off into nothing for a moment as she took a sip from her glass.

"And you," turning to Bickslow she pointed at him, feeling a spike of anger that had pushed the trip in the first place.

"Me?" His grin suddenly dropped

"Yes, _you. _You and Freed _purposely_ threw the versus battle against Cana and I at the beginning of the trials, didn't you," she squinted, still pointing her index finger at him.

"OH, uhh that was Freed's idea," definitely throwing his team mate under the train, "He felt you two deserved it more than we ever could after… after Fantasia…" it was true, and he shared those feelings with Freed but he wasn't going to outright say that. He also really didn't want to be bringing up the whole Fantasia incident, but the look on Lucy's face told him that she was not going to take any bullshit for an answer, or leave without saying what she had to.

"What the **_fuck_**?" Bickslow had to blink in shock for a moment, and Evergreen _did_ choke on her sip of wine this time at the sound of the celestial mage swearing so loudly and suddenly, "I'm sorry, but that's – that's unbelievable. The _whole_ guild has forgiven you guys by now, we all accept you, _I_ accept you and forgive you." It was clear she was talking about the whole Raijinshuu, but she stared directly into Bickslow's eyes when she emphasized her own forgiveness of them – and him. He and Evergreen had done the most damage to her specifically, and even though Lucy and Loke had ultimately kicked the shit out of Bickslow, he had been trying to _kill_ her during that fight, not just hurt her.

Lucy frowned at the silence in the room, aside from Evergreen still recovering from inhaling a bit of wine. The atmosphere was awkward and that wasn't what she wanted. The look on Bickslow's face could say it all then, and she felt a level of tension leave her body as she sank back into the couch – not realizing she had sat forward on her knees during her small speech. The glass of wine still in her hand had only a few sips from it, so she tossed the whole thing back before setting it on the table.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell… it honestly frustrates me that you guys don't seem to see, you're welcome, and we do all love you, you're a member of Fairy Tail, so you're a part of our family."

She felt arms wrap around her from behind, and realized Evergreen had moved forward from her chair and was now hugging Lucy from behind, over the arm rest of the couch. Moment's later she felt Bickslow shuffle to sit directly beside her before wrapping his own arms around the two of them.

"Freed would so be crying right now," Ever sniffled, laughing quietly as she had her eyes closed, fighting back a couple of her own tears, not wanting to really let them go – at least not in front of anyone.

"You might have to do this again when Freed and Laxus get back, Cosplayer, I would _die_ to see how Laxus would react," Bickslow pulled one of his arms back, letting his left arm stay up and around Lucy and Ever's shoulders. A half-smile on his mouth at the thought of Freed reacting to Lucy's undoubted frustration she had shown him moments ago, about the whole Tenrou thing.

"I didn't see Freed back at the bar, Laxus was still there though," Lucy thought for a moment, wondering if Freed wasn't with Evergreen and Bickslow _or_ Laxus, she had no idea where he could be.

"Probably went to find a book store, that's his way of celebrating," Evergreen pulled back then from the group hug, leaving Bickslow with his arm just around Lucy now – and they were very close to each other. Smirking, she turned away and went back to the kitchenette to pour some more wine into her now empty glass, bringing the last of the bottle back with her for the celestial mage.

Neither seemed to notice they were so close, and for a moment Ever thought they'd be a ridiculously cute couple. Watching them on the couch for the few steps it took her to get back to her chair, Lucy didn't seem to notice that Bickslow still had his arm around her – or that she was even leaning into him a bit.

_Interesting, alcohol is very interesting_.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Initially I thought I was going to be moving my writings onto a _newer_ account I had set up a few years ago but I've decided to ultimately keep **_this_**_ account_ active and post from here from now on.


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